THE KEY.
I stood now upon the steps, watching and listening. In a minute
or two I heard the crackle of withered sticks trod upon, and,
looking in the direction, I saw a figure approaching among the
trees, wrapped in a mantle.
I advanced eagerly. It was the Countess. She did not speak, but
gave me her hand, and I led her to the scene of our last
interview. She repressed the ardour of my impassioned greeting
with a gentle but peremptory firmness. She removed her hood,
shook back her beautiful hair, and, gazing on me with sad and
glowing eyes, sighed deeply. Some awful thought seemed to weigh
upon her.
"Richard, I must speak plainly. The crisis of my life has come. I
am sure you would defend me. I think you pity me; perhaps you
even love me."
At these words I became eloquent, as young madmen in my plight
do. She silenced me, however, with the same melancholy firmness.
"Listen, dear friend, and then say whether you can aid me. How
madly I am trusting you; and yet my heart tells me how wisely! To
meet you here as I do--what insanity it seems! How poorly you
must think of me! But when you know all, you will judge me
fairly. Without your aid I cannot accomplish my purpose. That
purpose unaccomplished, I must die. I am chained to a man whom I
despise--whom I abhor. I have resolved to fly. I have jewels,
principally diamonds, for which I am offered thirty thousand
pounds of your English money. They are my separate property by my
marriage settlement; I will take them with me. You are a judge,
no doubt, of jewels. I was counting mine when the hour came, and
brought this in my hand to show you. Look."
"It is magnificent!" I exclaimed, as a collar of diamonds
twinkled and flashed in the moonlight, suspended from her pretty
fingers. I thought, even at that tragic moment, that she
prolonged the show, with a feminine delight in these brilliant
toys.
"Yes," she said, "I shall part with them all. I will turn them
into money, and break, for ever, the unnatural and wicked bonds
that tied me, in the name of a sacrament, to a tyrant. A man
young, handsome, generous, brave as you, can hardly be rich.
Richard, you say you love me; you shall share all this with me.
We will fly together to Switzerland; we will evade pursuit; my
powerful friends will intervene and arrange a separation; and I
shall, at length, be happy and reward my hero."
You may suppose the style, florid and vehement, in which I poured
forth my gratitude, vowed the devotion of my life, and placed
myself absolutely at her disposal.
"To-morrow night," she said, "my husband will attend the remains
of his cousin, Monsieur de St. Amand, to Père la Chaise. The
hearse, he says, will leave this at half-past nine. You must be
here, where we stand, at nine o'clock."
I promised punctual obedience.
"I will not meet you here; but you see a red light in the window
of the tower at that angle of the château?"
I assented.
"I placed it there, that, to-morrow night, when it comes, you may
recognize it. So soon as that rose-coloured light appears at that
window, it will be a signal to you that the funeral has left the
château, and that you may approach safely. Come, then, to that
window; I will open it, and admit you. Five minutes after a
travelling-carriage, with four horses, shall stand ready in the
_porte-cochère_. I will place my diamonds in your hands; and so
soon as we enter the carriage, our flight commences. We shall
have at least five hours' start; and with energy, stratagem, and
resource, I fear nothing. Are you ready to undertake all this for
my sake?"
Again I vowed myself her slave.
"My only difficulty," she said, "is how we shall quickly enough
convert my diamonds into money; I dare not remove them while my
husband is in the house."
Here was the opportunity I wished for. I now told her that I had
in my banker's hands no less a sum than thirty thousand pounds,
with which, in the shape of gold and notes, I should come
furnished, and thus the risk and loss of disposing of her
diamonds in too much haste would be avoided.
"Good heaven!" she exclaimed, with a kind of disappointment. "You
are rich, then? and I have lost the felicity of making my
generous friend more happy. Be it so! since so it must be. Let us
contribute, each, in equal shares, to our common fund. Bring you,
your money; I, my jewels. There is a happiness to me even in
mingling my resources with yours."
On this there followed a romantic colloquy, all poetry and
passion, such as I should, in vain, endeavour to reproduce.
Then came a very special instruction.
"I have come provided, too, with a key, the use of which I must
explain."
It was a double key--a long, slender stem, with a key at each
end--one about the size which opens an ordinary room door; the
other, as small, almost, as the key of a dressing-case.
"You cannot employ too much caution to-morrow night. An
interruption would murder all my hopes. I have learned that you
occupy the haunted room in the Dragon Volant. It is the very room
I would have wished you in. I will tell you why--there is a story
of a man who, having shut himself up in that room one night,
disappeared before morning. The truth is, he wanted, I believe,
to escape from creditors; and the host of the Dragon Volant, at
that time, being a rogue, aided him in absconding. My husband
investigated the matter, and discovered how his escape was made.
It was by means of this key. Here is a memorandum and a plan
describing how they are to be applied. I have taken them from the
Count's escritoire. And now, once more I must leave to your
ingenuity how to mystify the people at the Dragon Volant. Be sure
you try the keys first, to see that the locks turn freely. I will
have my jewels ready. You, whatever we divide, had better bring
your money, because it may be many months before you can revisit
Paris, or disclose our place of residence to any one; and our
passports--arrange all that; in what names, and whither, you
please. And now, dear Richard" (she leaned her arm fondly on my
shoulder, and looked with ineffable passion in my eyes, with her
other hand clasped in mine), "my very life is in your hands; I
have staked all on your fidelity."
As she spoke the last word, she, on a sudden, grew deadly pale,
and gasped, "Good God! who is here?"
At the same moment she receded through the door in the marble
screen, close to which she stood, and behind which was a small
roofless chamber, as small as the shrine, the window of which was
darkened by a clustering mass of ivy so dense that hardly a gleam
of light came through the leaves.
I stood upon the threshold which she had just crossed, looking in
the direction in which she had thrown that one terrified glance.
No wonder she was frightened. Quite close upon us, not twenty
yards away, and approaching at a quick step, very distinctly
lighted by the moon, Colonel Gaillarde and his companion were
coming. The shadow of the cornice and a piece of wall were upon
me. Unconscious of this, I was expecting the moment when, with
one of his frantic yells, he should spring forward to assail me.
I made a step backward, drew one of my pistols from my pocket,
and cocked it. It was obvious he had not seen me.
I stood, with my finger on the trigger, determined to shoot him
dead if he should attempt to enter the place where the Countess
was. It would, no doubt, have been a murder; but, in my mind, I
had no question or qualm about it. When once we engage in secret
and guilty practices we are nearer other and greater crimes than
we at all suspect.
"There's the statue," said the Colonel, in his brief discordant
tones. "That's the figure."
"Alluded to in the stanzas?" inquired his companion.
"The very thing. We shall see more next time. Forward, Monsieur;
let us march."
And, much to my relief, the gallant Colonel turned on his heel,
and marched through the trees, with his back toward the château,
striding over the grass, as I quickly saw, to the park wall,
which they crossed not far from the gables of the Dragon Volant.
I found the Countess trembling in no affected, but a very real
terror. She would not hear of my accompanying her toward the
château. But I told her that I would prevent the return of the
mad Colonel; and upon that point, at least, that she need fear
nothing. She quickly recovered, again bid me a fond and lingering
good-night, and left me, gazing after her, with the key in my
hand, and such a phantasmagoria floating in my brain as amounted
very nearly to madness.
There was I, ready to brave all dangers, all right and reason,
plunge into murder itself, on the first summons, and entangle
myself in consequences inextricable and horrible (what cared I?)
for a woman of whom I knew nothing, but that she was beautiful
and reckless!
I have often thanked heaven for its mercy in conducting me
through the labyrinths in which I had all but lost myself.